Puyo Puyo Tsuu

Puyo Puyo Tsuu

The sequel to the original Puyo Puyo was first released in 1994. The title,
Tsuu, is a Japanese word for master, but read out loud it is a homophone to
the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Two", essentially making a pun out
of the title "Puyo Puyo 2". This is a theme that will continue with almost all
the sequels of the main Puyo series.

On the surface, the player will notice straight away that the story mode
has been greatly expanded from the previous release, again centered around
another one of Satan's harebrained plot, with many more characters introduced
from the Madou Monogatari series and the story advancing on a "tier-based"
system rather than the linear progression of the previous game.

The huge change to the game, however, was to be found in the game mechanic.
A seemingly simple addition was put in the system, where if your opponent
has sent garbage over to you, rather than standing and taking it, you could
set off your own chain and use the garbage you have generated to offset it
before it has a chance to fall into your screen. If the strength of your chain
exceeds that of your opponent's you can even counter attack them with the extra garbage.

The change may have been simple but it completely revolutionized the way Puyo
was played competitively. Without "offsetting" the viable strategies in the
original Puyo were mostly limited to making quick chains to beat your opponent.
With offsetting however, a whole new world of strategies opened up. You can't get
away anymore by simply making a 4-5 chain, which previously was enough to fill
up the opponent's entire screen. More advanced players had to learn to make much
larger chains to keep the edge in the game. Techniques and strategies such as
watching the opponent screen, baiting, chain-cutting, etc. became relevant or
even more crucial than they were before.

The Tsuu rule, as it is called, has become widely accepted as the standard for
Puyo battles and even now the game, or at least the rule, is used in tournament
matches. While subsequent sequels have tried to introduce new mechanics into Puyo,
they are usually regarded as rather gimmicky and don't contribute to the competitive
potential of the game, and the Tsuu rule retains its crown as the definitive Puyo
rule, and all sequels keep the Tsuu rule as a selectable
alternative to whatever rules that game decided to include.

The game also received a "Remix" version which improved upon the original Super Famicom
(SNES) version, including some new modes which expands the gameplay significantly, but
the definitive version for the game would be the PSX and Saturn releases that come with
full voice acting for the cutscenes. For English-speaking fans though, one should pick
up the original Super Famicom release since it is the only version of Tsuu you can find
a translation patch for. The arcade version
remains the standard for tournament battles to this day.

The Puyo Puyo Masters tournaments. Take a look at how many Puyo fans there are!